Chapter Text
Sebastian woke up in an unfamiliar bed. Upon realizing this, he jolted up, glancing around the room before remembering, oh, he’d moved in with Kay yesterday. After a couple more seconds of looking around the room, he settled back against the pillow with a sigh.
After Blaise was arrested, he didn’t really have anywhere to go. Technically, he could’ve stayed at his old house, but he really, really didn’t want to. Not after everything he’d discovered. Not alone. So, for the past couple months, Justine had taken him in, just as a temporary place to stay. It was nice and all, she and John were welcoming, but it never really felt like… home. That was to be expected, of course, he knew it was temporary and he’d lived with Po- with Blaise his entire life. But it was still hard.
Then Kay announced that she had gotten her own apartment, and she’d be moving in soon. Sebastian had gotten a call from Mr. Edgeworth, who informed him that he’d already spoken with Kay and that she’d be willing to have him as a roommate, if he wanted - Edgeworth knew about his housing situation and had been helping Sebastian look for a solution. With an excessive amount of thank-yous and a few calls to Kay, they both set foot into the apartment for the first time yesterday night before almost instantly falling asleep due to how tiring moving was. They hadn’t even unpacked, he realized, looking down at the few boxes littering the floor of his new room.
The morning sunlight illuminated his room, curtains slightly open. Even though it hadn’t happened in a while, part of him still expected to be forcefully awoken if he tried to sleep for too long. He had to remind himself that wouldn’t happen anymore.
Faintly, he heard a door open, quiet footsteps approaching his room. He tensed before reminding himself it’s just Kay, Kay lives with you now, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Despite his attempts, however, he couldn’t relax until the footsteps passed his door.
After a few minutes, he decided he really should get out of bed now, pushing off the sheets and almost instantly tripping over a box. Thankfully, he managed to regain his balance and he avoided faceplanting into the floor. He really needed to unpack soon. Hearing Kay’s voice in the same direction the footsteps went, he gently opened his door and walked towards it.
Kay stood in the middle of the kitchen, still in her crow-patterned pyjamas. He then realized he’d been so exhausted last night that he’d forgotten to change into pyjamas in the first place and was still wearing his clothes from yesterday. Oh well. Kay was on the phone, pacing back and forth as she talked.
“...yeah. I just woke up... No, he isn’t awake yet… no, we have not unpacked yet - Mr. Edgeworth, you don’t have to worry so much, we literally just moved in yesterday night… Yes, you are worried about us, I can tell… No, I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I was just about to make it, I just told you I just woke up - ”
Unsure of how to announce that he was indeed awake, he walked up to her. While pacing, she turned around and, apparently, did not expect to see him there. She jumped back with a yelp, which also startled Sebastian, causing him to react similarly. After a moment, her eyes lit up with recognition.
“There you are, Sebastian!” She was still on the phone. He could barely hear Edgeworth, who was currently being ignored. “That was some really good sneaking. I didn’t even hear you coming.”
He often forgot how quietly he naturally walked, a habit born out of years of being as quiet as possible. “S-Sorry, Kay. Good morning.” His voice cracked with his first words of the day. He glanced around the kitchen, noticing a few eggs lying on the counter by the refrigerator.
“Good morning!” she happily chirped back. He walked over and closed the fridge door, which had been slightly ajar. “Yes, Mr. Edgeworth, I’m alright, it’s just Sebastian. Yeah, yeah, I’ll tell him.” Kay waited until Sebastian glanced back towards her to continue speaking. “Mr. Edgeworth says good morning and,” - her eyebrows furrowed slightly - “he hopes you... ‘Settle into your new residence comfortably’? Also, thanks for closing that, I forgot.”
“O-Oh!” He smiled, feeling warm. “Tell him I said thanks.”
“Yeah, he said thanks. Thanks for calling, I’m going to go make breakfast now, yes I’ll call back later, of course, Mr. Edgeworth… yes, of course I’ll be careful, bye!” She hung up the phone, practically throwing it on the counter. No wonder its screen was so cracked. “Sorry about that. I woke up to two missed calls from him, the worrywart. Did you sleep well?”
Honestly, he’d woken up a few times during the night, but it was still a better sleep than usual. “Yeah,” he responded absent-mindedly, getting used to the new kitchen. It had a direct view into the living room, only separated by a kitchen counter. He hadn’t quite noticed last night, but… “Wow, this is a big apartment.”
“I know, right?” She started opening the several drawers, looking for something. “It’s amazing how little it took to convince Edgeworth to buy this place for me. Three floors off the ground, too. Very nice.” With a small “Aha!” she pulled out a frying pan, setting it onto the stove and turning on the heat. “I can make us breakfast. Fried eggs sound good?”
He blinked. It was still extremely hard to quite get used to people making food for him, after having to fend for himself for so long. After a moment of thinking, he asked, “Can I help?”
Kay gave him a thumbs up before running to the fridge and taking out a stick of butter. “You can start the toast, if you want that. The bread is in the fridge. You know how to work the toaster, right?”
“Of course!” he replied instantly. He had his hand on the handle of the fridge door before he stopped and turned back towards her. “Wait, why do you keep the bread in the fridge?”
“Cold bread at midnight is a better snack than you’d think,” she said as if it was obvious, cracking four eggs into the pan. “You should try it sometime.”
He decided not to question it.
Sebastian opened the fridge to see it was almost completely full. Wow, either Edgeworth must really have a lot of money or Kay had actually stolen all of this. He quickly located the loaf of bread, triumphantly setting it on the counter in front of the toaster before realizing he had never seen a toaster like this before and had no idea how it worked. Well. He’d already told Kay he knew what he was doing, no turning back now.
“H-How much toast do you want?” he said, examining the machine. He was used to pop-up toasters, and this was not a pop-up toaster, moreso resembling an oven. It had three knobs and what looked like an electronic screen and he did not understand it at all.
“Two slices, please,” Kay responded, starting to flip the eggs. He nodded and slid in three pieces of bread, one for himself. “Oh, by the way, it isn’t plugged in.”
He blinked. “O-Oh. I knew that.” (He hadn’t.)
After a lot of confusion that he hoped was hidden, Sebastian finally got the toaster working. While waiting, he absorbed his surroundings. He could hear Kay faintly humming, paired with the sizzling of the eggs. The room was dappled with sunlight, giving it a cozy feel. He felt like he’d never get used to that. Blaise’s house didn’t have many windows, so it relied mostly on unnatural light sources and a fireplace. He’d never liked the fireplace. But the sunlight was nice; it was warm, but it didn’t threaten to burn him.
“It’s ready!” Kay said, very loudly, breaking him out of his thoughts and making him flinch. “Hey, wanna turn on some music while we eat? It’s too quiet. I would, but my phone’s probably dead now.” She waved the hot pan around as she spoke, which definitely was not safe.
“Sure!” He pulled out his phone, eager to share his music, before pausing. The few times he’d been caught listening to his favorite songs, he was always given weird looks. He really didn’t want Kay to start thinking the same, especially not on their first day living together.
He glanced up. Kay, noticing his reluctance, gave him a small nod of affirmation. Well, no going back now. He clicked play and decided that maybe if he just ignored it, she wouldn’t question it either. As the music started, he set his phone on the counter and walked over to Kay, who was in the process of putting the finished eggs on their plates.
“So!” he started, desperately searching for something to say. “Uh, eggs, huh?”
A small moment passed before he cringed. Really? That’s the best I could come up with?
“Is this… classical?” Kay replied, glancing back at his phone. And it didn’t even work!
“W-Well, I, uh…” He shrunk back slightly. “Yeah?”
“Cool.” She finished sliding the eggs onto the two plates, giving a surprised Sebastian one of them. “Is this your favorite genre?”
He hadn’t expected a response like that. “Y-Yeah! It’s, uh, it’s really calming to me, and…” He placed his plate on the table before glancing up again, unsure of himself. She nodded, seeming genuinely interested. Wow.
His baton was yet to be unpacked, so he fiddled with his gloves as he spoke. “W-Well, a lot of other music is too much and it ends up, uh, extracting - no, sorry, distracting me, but, c-classical really helps me focus! I’ve, uh, listened to it for years, it helps to cheer me up if - if I’m upset, and... it’s really interesting!” He started subconsciously waving his hand to the beat of the music. “I’ve studied the compositions and the way they write these songs is really - it’s really cool, and…” His voice trailed off.
A few moments of silence passed, the music reaching a chorus. He closed his eyes, taking it in, while he heard Kay place her plate on the table, next to his.
“You really like this music, huh,” she started, cutting off a piece of her egg. He watched the yolk spill out onto the plate. Oh, right, he had food too. He’d completely forgotten. “Music like this usually isn’t my cup of tea, I like energetic songs. But this is pretty nice, too. It sounds like it’s important to you.”
It was small, Kay showing interest in one of his favorite things. But it still felt really nice in a way he couldn’t quite describe. He smiled. “Yeah. It is.”
Hey, wait. Back to the food. Was he forgetting something?
He glanced back towards the kitchen.
Oh. The toast. On fire. Of course.
“...K-Kay?”
A short pause as she glanced over. Smoke started to billow out of the toaster.
“...Oh, shit! ”
The next couple minutes were extremely frantic. Kay yanked the toaster’s plug out of the wall while a panicked Sebastian scoured the apartment for a fire extinguisher. There was no fire extinguisher. He shoved open the window to push out the smoke and the fire was not stopping and they both exchanged a few seconds of panicked, flailing gestures and noises that could barely be classified as communicating, before Kay finally seemed to give up, actually picking up the toaster which was still on fire and shouting "Bombs away, motherfucker!” as loud as she could before flinging the toaster out the window.
They ran up to the window and slightly leaned out of it, side-by-side, and watched. A couple seconds passed as it fell before the toaster made a thud that was audible even from three stories high. It completely shattered, pieces flying in every direction below. Somehow, and he really, really did not know how, but somehow, this stopped the fire.
There was an extremely long moment of complete silence, only disturbed by his classical music that had been playing the entire time. Gaping, they both stared down at the slightly charred bits of toaster. The only indication that there had just been a fire in their apartment was the faint smell of smoke and their newfound lack of a toaster. That had… actually worked, somehow.
They both turned towards each other, still gaping. Now, Sebastian did not swear very often. But there were very few words in the English language that he could use to properly express what he was feeling at the moment.
“Kay,” he started, very quietly. “What the fuck? ”
Kay glanced back towards the counter that the toaster had been laying on, then out the window, before turning back towards Sebastian. Another short beat of silence passed before Kay burst into laughter.
“O-Our first day-” She leaned down, hands on her knees, completely broken down into cackling. He thought he saw tears in her eyes. “Our first day - no, our first hour! Our first hour in the same house, and - and I’ve already thrown a fucking flaming toaster out the window,” she barely managed to say, before dissolving into another wave of laughter. ”Oh, Mr. Edgeworth is going to love this!”
Sebastian had always hated fire, so he was slightly shaken up from the whole ordeal. But he had to admit. It was kinda funny.